the money to buy a car that's one model-year newer with 15,000 fewer miles on it. there's no other auto insurance product like it. better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual. it's a better policy that gets you a better car. call... or visit one of our local offices today, and we'll provide the coverage you need at the right price. liberty mutual auto insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? you're in "the situation room." the republican presidential candidates are just a few days away from the first tests that count. the battle for iowa and the dramatic shift in the race as it goes down to the wire. newt gingrich is telling mitt romney he needs to man up about his negative attacks. romney is asking why gingrich is

so angry. stand by for my interviews with gingrich and romney along with romney's wife ann. iowa's new rising star, rick santorum, and the surprising ron paul. welcome to our viewers from around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're just a few days from the voting of the republican campaign and as the iowa caucus looms, mitt romney still leads in iowa with 25% and ron paul is right behind at 22%. but look at this. rick santorum has jumped into third place at 16%. meanwhile, gingrich plummeted to

14% down from 33% only a few weeks ago. rick perry, michele bachmann, and jon huntsman are all at the bottom. i sat down with gingrich has he was being barraged by attack ads. >> if you watch commercials, they are hitting you hard. >> oh, yeah. i think they will have spent 5, 6, $7 million. most of it false: i think this entire jobs and economic growth tour is designed to encounter the negativity. i think we're going to be in the top three or four. we could end up as number one. it's a very confusing field right now. >> it looks like you're optimistic. >> yeah. a super pac ad by his supporters. i'll supply a little clip, watch

it, and then we'll discuss it. >> barack obama's plan is working. destroy mitt romney, run against newt gingrich. newt has a ton of baggage. he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations and took 1$1.6 millin from freddie mac before it helped cause the economic meltdown. newt supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. >> all right. you get the point. that's a tough ad not from mitt romney but from a super pac. >> that pac is ran by his staff, paid for by his friends. >> but there can't be any coordination. >> all you've got to do publicly is say, only run positive ads. that would be called leadership. >> here's ron paul's campaign and it's very tough on you.

>> folks, don't ask me to explain this. >> everything that gingrich railed against when he was in the house, he went the other way when he got paid to go the other way. >> he's demonstrating himself to be the very essence of the washington insiders. >> it's about serial hypocrisy. >> serial hypocrisy. that's what ron paul is accusing you of. somebody says you're involved in serial hypocrisy and you're not going to fight back? >> well, first of all, people who get to know ron paul who disowns ten years of his own newsletter, said he didn't really realize what was in it, had no idea what he was making money on, that he was racist, anti-semitic, talked about a race war, all of this is a sudden shock to ron paul? there will come a morning when people won't take him as a

serious person. this is a man that had a good cause and i think as a protest, he's a reasonable candidate. as a potential president, a person who thinks that the united states was responsible for 911, a person who believes that the world trade bombing was a plot and i would rather just say, you look at ron paul's total record of systemic avoidance of reality, look at his newsletters and his ads, his ads are about as accurate as his newsletters. >> if he were to get the republican nomination -- >> he won't. >> let's say he does. could you vote for him? >> i don't care if there's -- i don't care if the iranians get a nuclear weapon?

he said he doesn't think iran is a threat even if they had a nuke bomb. >> what he says is, that's rakes that he's willing to take and had one of his former staff say flatly, that he said over and over again, that israel was a mistake. i mean, i think it's very difficult to see how you would engage in dealing with ron paul's anomaly. given the newsletter which he has not yet disowned. >> you would not vote for ron paul? >> i think he would have to go very far to explain himself. >> what would you do if the choice were ron paul or barack obama? >> i think you'd have a very tough choice. >> what would you do. >> i think barack obama is very destructive to the future of the united states. i think ron paul's views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent american. now, that's going to be very controversial but i just suggest to people, before you decide that i'm wrong, read the newsletters. look at what he said and ask

yourself this is a very serious question of the united states. >> he never read that, he never wrote it. only years later did he look at it? >> he's attacking me for serial hypocrisy. and takes very straight answers to get someone to take him seriously. would i listen to him, yes. i think the choice of ron paul or barack obama would be and a very bad chase. >> mitt romney made fun of you. did you hear about this? >> no. >> i i'll play the clip. watch this. >> okay. >> you know, i think you compare that to it's more like lucille ball at the chocolate pact industry. you've got to get it organized.

>> i have a very simple message for mitt romney. i'll meet him anywhere in iowa for 90 minutes, just of two of us in a debate with a time keeper and moderator. i'd love to have him say that to my face. i'd like to have him have the courage to back up his negative ads and the stuff that hes staff has been putting out. if he wants to prove that he can debate barack obama, he ought to have the courage to stand on the same stage as me. he's buying millions of dollars of attack ads through a phony super pac paid by his former staff paid for by his millionaire friends. i think he ought to have the courage to explain his ads and explain his record as a moderate in massachusetts, explain his record of raising taxes, explain his record of paying for

abortions through state money and explain why he wasn't a job creating governor and his current plan, as much as can be mine. the gingrich romney moderate plan which is much weaker than job creation. i'd like to invite 90 minutes of debating face-to-face. >> herman cain has debated one on one, mitt romney's the one running the most attack ads to attack me. he's doing it by, oh, i don't control all of my former staff and my millionaire friends. it's baloney. he wants to defend his negativity, show up in iowa face-to-face. but let the people decide whether or not in fact le back up what he's been saying and let

him back up his moderate record. not conservative record as governor. i don't think he will do it. >> one final question because it's so important to the country and to me. knowing what you know right now, knowing what all of us know, including this tension that's developing in the african-american view, was it smart for the u.s. to go in there in march of 2003 and launch this invasion and get rid of suddam hussein based on faulty intelligence? was it a blunder, if you know then, what you know now, what would you have done? >> first of all, based on the intelligence as agreed to by the russian, british, the french -- nonetheless, every -- >> we all know that we're smarter now than we were then. >> yeah, but you have an advantage of looking back at hindsight and say, gee -- >> with 20/20 hindsight, was the

war smart or stupid? >> i think suddam hussein did a lot of murderous things and was involved in killing over a million people and look at the cost of running the iraq war. so i would say, if you look at what he was doing for nuclear weapons, most of his generals thought suddam had a nuclear weapons program. weapons program. so i think it's [ male announcer ] if you're giving an amazing gift, shouldn't it be given in an amazing way? ♪

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and i would hate to pick one or

they trade with people and practice diplomacy having this militant telling people what to do and how to run the world and building walls around our own country. that is isolationism and it's a far cry from what we believe in. >> just to be precise, you want to bring all u.s. troops home. from germany, japan, every place else around the world. is that right? >> yeah, because i believe in our responsibility of the government of national defense and fighting these wars does not help us. and it's bringing us to our knees, too.

we've been here 10 years and it's contributing to this huge deficit that we have. the wars have contributed in the last ten years. so, yeah, i want to bring them home and i think we'll be stronger for it. we'll have a lot stronger economy if we're serious, you have to deal with foreign policy. >> congressman, good luck. >> thanks a lot. >> the next candidate on our agenda, michele bachmann. you're going to figure out her plans for a last-minute surge in iowa. plus, governor texas rick perry on the move. what no democrat has done since 1948. ♪

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it was only four months ago when michele bachmann was at the front of the presidential pack in iowa. since then her numbers have been plunging and it's time for her to turn things around. >> it's never going to happen, wolf. ron paul is not getting the nomination. we see this unbelievable momentum for me in iowa. americans want an american iron lady and they are flipping to michele bachmann. i intend to be the nominee that defeats barack obama because we've got to get the company right on track and appeal obama care. that's what i intend to do. >> i know it's a big if but he says he couldn't vote -- >> it's never going to happen. >> if it did, would you vote for

him? >> it's never going to happen, wolf. it's never going to happen. >> you can't say whether or not -- he is never going to be the nominee. right, you guys? it's going to be michele bachmann. there you go. >> in our new cnn poll, he's doing a lot better than you are in iowa. how do you explain that? >> well, because the polls don't determine what is going to happen on january 3rd. everyone said that i didn't have a chance to win the iowa straw poll. i'm the only candidate in the presidential race that's won a statewide election. i won the iowa straw poll. we're going to see a miracle happen on tuesday. i have absolutely no doubt. the people here in nevada, iowa, know that, too. so we're going to see that miracle. we're excited. >> you are continuing to spend about $2 billion a week, maintaining 100,000 troops in

afghanistan. the karzai government announced that they are granting an oil-drilling project potentially worth billions of dollars not to a u.s. company that wanted it, not to a european company that wanted it but to china. is that okay with you? >> no, of course that. because this is what we are seeing. are they are continuing to become the economic powerhouse. we cannot forget that china has delivered systems to enable them in their quest to obtain nuclear weapons. >> four more interviews to go, including mitt romney. up next, he and his wife get personal. plus, why rick santorum is nervous about a ron paul presidency.

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i went to iowa this week and the run-up to caucuses and i sat down with mitt romney and his wife ann on the campaign bus. the conversation got personal. i got to see a side of them and their new marriage that many people haven't seen. >> you know, i think a lot of people are aware that i have multiple sclerosis and to bring an awareness to people that are suffering and have difficulties in their life, not only would i bring more awareness to people that have to deal with a lot in their lives, but also to try to move the ball forward a little bit and try to find a cure. >> tell us about that, if you don't mind sharing, what does that mean for you? >> mull tell sclerosis has an enormous amount of fatigue in their life and it's like starting over. it's like the rules of life have changed now and you aren't operating the same way. your memory isn't as good, you

get fatigued, you often times might lose function in a leg, an arm, an eye. i mean, it is all these bad things that happen with ms and it's a progressive disease. it's also a relapsing and remitting disease which i'm fortunately in right now. it's a difficult thing to deal with. >> i know people who on medication can really help. >> yes. it's been enormous progress in the last -- since i've been diagnosed, really. enormous progress. and keeping people to their aspirations is not as significant and that's where the medicine has been very, very helpful. but we're right on the cuff of finding new ways to deal with multiple sclerosis. >> the story you've told -- and i don't know if our viewers have heard you tell it, that when you suspected that mrs. romney was getting sick, you weren't sure

what it was, you had no idea what was going to happen, and i wonder if you could share that story when you first suspected that something was wrong. >> well, wolf, we knew that something was awry and our doctor said you need to see a neurologist. we went to massachusetts general hospital where the folks signed us to a subperb neurologist. we went into his lobby and on the table were brochures that described lou gar rig's disease and multiple sclerosis. those looked to be the things that neurologists were treating. >> and the symptoms, they were my symptoms. >> yes. >> same symptoms? >> the symptoms, in ann's case, were similar for either one of those diseases. we went into his office, he did a sear rus of neurological tests and so forth and it was clear that she he didn't have feeling where she should have, she

didn't have balance where she should have, and something was seriously wrong. he left the room and we embraced each other. we were very emotional, and i said, ann, we can deal with anything as long as it's not terminal. you know, ann's my life. we live for each other and it was a difficult time for us. it's been a challenge since then but we're very fortunate that her condition is not terminal. that she's been able to be strong, and that this trauma came and that we were able to confront it. >> you've had an amazing marriage together and that one commercial that you've done, it's a powerful commercial. you know all the pundits, what they said? >> i actually don't know what they said because i'm on the road. >> they said, you know what, you've had a wonderful marriage, and you can see the two of you together right now, that is in marked contrast of newt gingrich and his three marriages. was there a political background to what you were trying to do

there? >> you know, not at all. i think whenever i speak about our life experience, it is ours. this is our story. it's not anyone else's story. everyone has their own story and for me to be able to talk about my life and how i feel about my husband, that's my story. and it's never intended to be anything along the lines other than our story. >> so tell us how you feel about him? >> well, i will say that for me it's so comforting to to know that mitt is always on my side and with me in the hardest of times and when you just described what it was like, to have that diagnosis, it was mitt that got me through my darkest hours. it was also mitt that got me through those really tough years raising five really quite rambunctious and at times quite

naughty boys, where he would call home and remind me when i would be quite exacerbated because he was traveling, that what i was doing was more important than his. my job is temporary and yours is going to bring lifelong happiness and eternal happiness for the family. so we had that kind of partnership. and that kind of support system that's always been there for a long time and, you know, when it gets really tough, it's nice to know that mit's mitt's there for me. >> tell us something that you may not know about the governor. >> well, i think people don't appreciate actually his sense of humor. that he actually plays a lot of tricks all the time and that he actually laughs most of the time and as soon as you turn these cameras off, he will become a joke and we'll be laughing and sitting back and telling jokes. >> he's a funny guy? >> he actually is a very funny

guy. >> the image of the governor, very proper. >> it's funny how that is and that may be his public perception but that is not who is he privately at all. >> is she right? >> yeah. yeah. i mean, i live for laughter. but, you know, in debates you get asked questions. you answer the questions. you don't tell jokes and as a matter of fact my sons, i used to watch laurel and hardy, the three stooges. >> newt gingrich didn't get on the virginia ballot and you made

the comparison to i love lucy and the chocolate factory. >> i think his campaign was like pearl harbor and my reaction was, no, no. this is not at all like pearl harbor. this is more like lucy at the chocolate factor. things are coming at you very fast. you're not always as organized as you'd like to be and sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to work out. and that happens to me in our campaign, that's happened to me at times. it's a humorous image but in many respects it reflects. >> if he couldn't get on the virginia ballot, couldn't get the 10,000 signatures that he needs. what does that say about his campaign? >> well, you know, i can't speak to his campaign but obviously that's his home state and we knew what the rules were when we got into this. we had to organize our effort to get on the ballot. you've got to be able to play by the rules if you're ultimately going to want to become the nominee to be barack obama. >> let's go through a few points and give you a chance to

respond. he wanted to challenge you to a one-on-one, no holds bar, just a full debate, just the two of you. and i am going to speak with governor romney tomorrow, look into the camera. he looked into the camera and said this, you want to run a negative campaign, you want to be enough to own it and let's be clear, i am willing to fight for real job creation with a real reagan camp style program and it's very tim pitd about job creation. let's get it on together and let's compare our two plans. >> this is a campaign about the things we believe in. i believe that the country has been lead in a very good and destructive way by a president

that doesn't understand our economy or understand america. i can get america working again. as for one on one with newt gingrich, if he and i end up being the two finalists, we'll have that opportunity. but right now we'll debate it ten times, do more debates in january. but until he and i and the other two finalists, other people who still deserve to be on the stage. ron paul, i think, is leading here in iowa as of today so the idea is is is that i'll debate all of them and i hope i'm one of them. if i am, i'll debate whoever the other finalist is. >> if ron paul were to be the republican nominee -- let's say he wins the republican nomination. could you vote for him? >> you know, i've already crossed that river, if you will, by saying on the stage a number of times, as i believe speaker gingrich has, that all of the people on the stage would be

superior to the president that we have. so, yes, i would vote for him. >> would you vote for someone who says iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon and -- >> i oppose many of the things that ron paul says and many of his initiatives and i believe we'd be able to move him in a direction that is more productive. but i can tell you that this president, in any view, is taking america in the wrong direction and in iran and israel and with regards to our policy internationally and here at home. >> so you think ron paul would be a better president than barack obama? >> i have said that and i think newt gingrich has said the same thing on the stage when we've spoken about our republican contenders. but, look, this is not a race, of course, about the people on the stage i don't think should become the nominee. it's about getting me to become the nominee and taking the republican manner and making sure that we get america back on track. >> mitt romney and his wife speaking with me earlier in iowa aboard his campaign bus. meanwhile, rick santorum is a close third in iowa right now.

only days before the caucus. up neck, he tells me his secret in the hawkeye state. plus, my interview with governor rick perry. if he loses in iowa and loses badly, is his campaign over?

one very big stosh ree, shows rick santorum surging into third place at 13%. hoping for a strong showing among social conservatives, i sat down with the former senator this week in iowa. >> you're the first candidate to

win all visit 99 counties here in iowa. you don't have a huge staff. what are you going to do to take it up to the next level? >> well, we're up on television right now. we're doing some radio ads. and if the money isn't coming in, you're doing town meeting after town meeting, 357 town hall meetings in the state of iowa and hard work pays off as it does in most areas. >> as you know, the organization is critical and it doesn't always go into a voting booth. you've got to make a commitment to spend a few hours in a church or a school, civic center, and that's why ron paul has that

organization we have 1,000 caucus captains. in some places we have going into a caucus and you can wear the badge, go and talk to people and, you know, gently twist a little arms. a large number of people are still, you know, moving around as you can see from all of these polls. >> newt gingrich was at 33% in early december and now he's at 14%. you were at 5% in early december. what happened to newt gingrich? >> look, i've been pretty focused and it's really resonating with those in iowa and our plan about how to stop

iran from developing a nuclear weapon. >> this is a huge issue for you? >> absolutely. >> apparently it's not for ron paul. >> that's one of the dangerous things that i'm concerned about, is that ron paul is in a position -- i talked to folks here who like ron paul and see him as someone that is bold and trying to take on washington and clean things up and shrink the size of the federal government. not just here in iowa but across the country. you need to get congress to work with him to do those things and there is not a long record of passing anything in washington, d.c. but when it comes to national security, people who like him and are concerned about, you know, not really crazy about his national security but we're not that worried we like him on this other stuff. the problem is, as you know in the constitution, the president's powers are really in the security. >> are you worried that he might be dangerous? >> my concern is that they will pull him back to this country

and he can do that day one without congressional approval, without any oversight and move our troops from europe to the middle east and that's something he can do and that's one of the reasons i think you see a lot of folks having second thoughts about putting him in a position where he can be -- >> he originally said that he would bring troops home from japan and joerm knee. that raises the question, i've been asking your colleagues and -- if he were the republican nominee for president, would you vote for him? >> i would i have serious concerns about that and i hope that enough pressure can be brought to bear if he become and

barack obama is this far away from ron paul on national security. he doesn't want to bring everybody back but he's bringing a lot of folks back and he's threatened to slash our military. i'm not too sure it will look that different than a ron paul administration when it comes to national security. >> speaking in iowa earlier in the week, a few more candidates to go. governor rick perry and the one thing that he would do that neither ronald reagan nor the bushes or bill clinton did as president of the united states. plus, jon huntsman is not really campaigning in iowa. what's his plan for new hampshire? stand by. wait a minute...i... [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer.

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rick perry remains back in the pack in the republican race. in the latest new hampshire poll he's way back and only 2% in iowa. he's barely into double digits. i sat down with rick perry while

he was in washington for the republican jewish coalition meeting. >> is it do or die for you in iowa? >> oh, not at all. >> if you come in third or fourth in iowa -- >> we are campaigning away, so they will be seeing us in florida. we'll be working there. so i feel pretty good about it. this is a very fluid race. you think about it, we have had four different front-runners at least. and it's newt's time to barrel now, so we'll see how that works out. >> let's talk about israel for a moment. a subject obviously on the minds of a lot of people you are going to be talking to. since '67 every u.s. president, democrat and republican, have called israeli settlement activity in the occupy territories illegal under international law. if you were president, would you continue that policy? >> when you're talking about the israeli settlement? >> yes. >> no, i wouldn't. i consider the -- i consider the israeli settlements to be legal from my perspective.

and i support them. >> even if they are in the west bank? >> well there are arrangements made, when the israelis are clearly on israel's land, that they have hard fought to win and to keep, absolutely. >> this is seen by the state department by occupy pal strin an territory. >> i don't always agree with the state department. i think the state department from time to time gets it wrong. i happen to believe that israel spends way too much defending itself from people who want to do terrorist acts against them. whether it is hamas, and the united states needs to be standing with israel, strongly standing with them and supporting them. >> would you move the u.s. embassy from tel-aviv to jerusalem? >> absolutely. >> when? >> as soon as i could. i would clearly say if you want to work for the state department and the united states, you need to be packing your bags and move to jerusalem. >> would you fear a negative reaction? >> no. how many other countries do we have our embassies in and it is

not in the capital of the country. >> going back to '48, no american president has recognized jerusalem as being the capital of israel. >> there may not be a president of the united states that feels as strongly about israel as i do. >> not as strongly as ronald reagan? >> not as strongly as i do. >> or george w.h. bush or -- >> not as strongly as i would. >> i took a question from facebook. who would you consider for vice president? any thoughts yet? >> none. no thoughts at all. i'm running for the presidency, there's plenty of time in the summer and the late summer and fall to be thinking about. >> if somebody else got the republican nomination, i know you thinks that's unlikely, but let's say newt gingrich or mitt romney, would you consider being a running mate? >> why would you pick the governor of texas to be vice

president? being vice president is not worth a bucket of swarm spit. >> our final candidate coming up, john huntsman, does he fear what could happen in iowa? find out coming up. that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and 250 dollars goes to your choice of five charities. ♪ with your help, we can reach 20 million dollars by the end of this, our fourth year. [ female announcer ] get 0 percent apr financing on select models for thirty-six months and we'll donate two-hundred and fifty dollars to your choice of five charities. now through january 3rd.

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here's a look at odd shots from the campaign trail in iowa. in north liberty, mitt romney stands on a piece of industrial equipment while addressing a crowd. in des moines, ron paul supporters pray during an event at the state fairgrounds. in adel, rick santorum puts on a nra cap. and newt and his wife greet workers at a nail salon. and rick perry greets a smiling baby at a restaurant. in tama a dog peeks out michele bachmann's bus window. hot shots from iowa. the former utah governor jon huntsman suffering in the polls since entering the race is bypassing iowa altogether hoping for a major upset in new hampshire. he's spending all his time in new hampshire. in order for you to survive new hampshire, how well do you have to do? >> we have to beat market expectations. you have to have a message that

connects with the people here on the ground. and that we have. i'm the only candidate in the race who by virtue of background and by virtue of real ideas i put forward to the american people will be able to tackle the two deficits we face in this country. one is an economic deficit, $15 trillion in debt, the need to fire engines in growth as i did as the governor of the state of utah, but job as importantly, wolf, we need someone to tackle the trust deficit. because i believe the trust deficit in america is as kroszive as the economic deficit. and that means we need to have a candidate and ultimately a president who can work for term limits in congress. who can work toward closing a revolving door and who deals with the banks on wall street. we have banks too big to fail, wolf, and sweatering ourselves up for another bailout. >> your policy is different than ron paul's. here's the question i have been asking the other candidates as well, if he were to get the republican nomination, would you be able to vote for him?

>> that's a hypothetical, wolf. and i ain't going there. >> it is a simple question, a yes or no. >> it is not a simple question. if you feel you are going to be the nominee -- >> newt gingrich said he couldn't vote for him. mitt romney said he couldn't. rick santorum said he could. a yes or a no? >> if ron paul can get to the finish line, i would be happy to support him, but he won't get there because he is unelectable because of his world view. some of it based on pure isolationism. and the american people are simply not going to support that at a time when the most tran century dent challenge of this decade is iran. and whether or not they acquire weapons of mass destruction. >> sunday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern, i'm anchoring a special from the cnn election center. a preview of the iowa caucuses. be sure to join us at the cnn election center when the first votes start coming in in this republican presidential contest. our coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tuesday, 7:00 p.m. eastern, only